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On the Efficiency of Field Star Capture by Star Clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2007

S. Mieske
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str.2, 85748 Garching b. München, Germany email: smieske@eso.org, mhilker@eso.org
H. Baumgardt
Affiliation:
Argelander Institut für Astronomie, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany email: holger@astro.uni-bonn.de
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Abstract

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An exciting recent finding regarding scaling relations among globular clusters is the so-called ‘blue tilt’: clusters of the blue sub-population follow a trend of redder colour with increasing luminosity. In this contribution we estimate by means of collisional N-body simulations to which extent this trend can be explained by field star capture occurring over a Hubble time. We investigate star clusters with 103 to 106 stars. We find that the ratio between captured field stars and total number of clusters stars is very low (≲ 10−4), even for co-rotation of the star cluster in a cold disk. This holds for star clusters in the mass range of both open clusters and globular clusters. Therefore, field star capture is not a probable mechanism for creating the colour-magnitude trend of metal-poor globular clusters.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

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